Iraq:  Blix Plans to Ask Baghdad to Destroy Missiles

Top U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix plans to officially ask Baghdad to destroy its stockpile of al-Samoud 2 missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 19).

Blix will send a letter this week notifying Iraq that the al-Samoud 2’s maximum range exceeds the 150-kilometer limit set by U.N. resolutions, the Journal reported.

If Baghdad complies, and destroys the missiles, the U.S. effort to build an international coalition to invade Iraq could suffer.  If Iraq refuses to destroy the missiles, however, the United States could use the al-Samoud 2 as evidence that Baghdad refuses to disarm, according to the Journal (David Cloud, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20).

Blix has not yet decided how to address Iraq’s illicit rocket engine imports and its rebuilding of missile motor casting chambers that previous U.N. inspectors had destroyed.  Blix could send a letter shortly with his decision, the Associated Press reported.

Independent experts corroborated suspicions that the casting chambers could still produce missile motors with ranges “significantly greater” than 93 miles, according to Blix.

“Accordingly, these chambers remain proscribed,” he said (Edith Lederer, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, Feb.20).

While waiting for a Blix decision and an Iraqi response, U.N. inspectors have continued tag al-Samoud 2 missiles in Iraq.  Inspectors attach 32 tags with bar codes to each section of the 23-foot missiles.

Iraq’s Ibn al-Haytham facility has delivered 50 al-Samoud 2 missiles to the Iraqi army and has another 50 on the assembly line, Mazhar Ahmad, the factory’s director, said Wednesday (Jacques Charmelot, Agence France-Presse, Feb. 20).

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